AUC Academic Conference 'From Virtual to Reality' The University of
Queensland 1996AUC Academic Conference 'From Virtual to Reality' The University of
Queensland 1996
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Paper Title:
SEARCHING OUT THE QUIET VOICE -
a case study in the application of
interactive multimedia toolsPresenter:
John Fairclough, The University of Auckland
Authors
John Fairclough
Senior Lecturer in Design, The University of AucklandJames Cunningham
Graduate Student, The University of Auckland
Keywords: Multimedia, Arts
Faculty area: Fine Arts
The advantages of interactive multimedia, in a range of educational, entertainment and commercial contexts, to enrich and enliven the experience of learning, are becoming increasingly apparent through the wide range of interactive multimedia titles now available on CD-ROM.
Raymond Pang's interactive project, describes the derivation of Cantonese characters from picture to ancient pictogram through to their modern form, creating a mnemonic for what otherwise might be regarded as an arbitrary symbol. It is a project by an undergraduate student, which demonstrates some of the compelling advantages of the medium when it is used creatively in the presentation of factual information.
While many interactive multimedia titles are, like Pang's, factually informative, entertaining, even addictively exciting, the potential of the medium to carry emotively poignant, intellectually revealing or demanding communications has yet to be extensively tested.
The challenge implicit in James Cunningham's undergraduate project, was to test the potential of the medium to evoke a subtler range of responses in the viewer, of a kind more usually associated with film, TV, theatre or literature than with computers. Making a communication of some subtlety, is what we allude to in the title of this paper as 'the quiet voice'.
A combination of 3D animations, still photographs, sound and digital video were used to construct a virtual space, which the viewer is invited to explore interactively.
The major problems to be addressed were how to :-
1] establish appropriate expectations in the viewer
2] devise a minimally intrusive navigation system
3] control the dynamics of the work, given the non linear structure of an interactive
4] maintain continuity through transitions between different media and modes of operation.
1] ESTABLISHING AN APPROPRIATE MIND SET
In order to elicit a subtler range of responses, it was necessary to establish an appropriate mind set and level of expectation in the viewer. Appropriate in this case being an unhurried, receptive, inquiring, reflective, state of mind. Cunningham's initial problem was how to counter a variety of possible mind sets, which might range from that of the enthusiastic, trigger-happy gamer, looking for an adrenalin rush, to that of the anxious techno-phobe.
During the public exhibition of the work, the task of framing the experience began by isolating a monitor and mouse, on a free-standing table, under a spotlight in a dimly lit room. To intensify the intimacy of the experience, users wore earphones, which provided a stronger immersion in the experience by isolating them from distractions.Initially the title of the work "Near yet so far away", displayed against a red curtain in large type, serves as a poster to invite participation, but without giving much away. Clicking the mouse button triggers the initial animation sequence.
Opening the red velvet curtains and dimming the house lights to a black void and silence, signals the start of a theatrical or cinematic experience, an expectation further reinforced by the expansive music, which is unmistakably music from a film score. Within the first few seconds the message is unambiguous "sit back for an hour and take in the film". This is not the only message that will be given unambiguously and later contradicted just as forcefully.
The motion of the camera as we tour the objects in the room, is orchestrated to the slow pace of the music. The objects, lit remotely as we approach, dissolve back into the gloom as the camera moves on. The pace and tone having been set and curiosity aroused, the linear animation ends and the user is left to explore objects in the room interactively.
2] THE INTERFACE
As well as provoking certain expectations in the user, the introductory animation sequence serves as a 'tour of the menu', locating the main hot spots in the virtual space. Highlighting selected objects with an ethereal light, establishes their significance as hot links and reinforces the 'other worldly' ambience of the dimly lit space.
The appearance of a conventional arrow cursor, prompts the user to explore. Changes to the shape and orientation of the cursor, in different situations, provides the feedback which allows the user to navigate through the space. No additional information or explanation of the navigation system is provided, in an attempt to minimise the level of visual noise generated by the interface.
3] SHAPING THE DYNAMICS OF THE INTERACTIVE
a) Intellectual and Emotional Interactivity
While fiction can be employed simply to entertain, it can also be employed to provoke us to exercise problem solving abilities, invite us to speculate, form theories, make judgements, reflect on our value systems, re-examine our preconceptions or develop a point of view on issues that we may not previously have considered. We may regard communications made in this mode, as generating intellectual and emotional interactivity, as the viewers thoughts and feelings are pushed and pulled by there imaginative involvement in the drama of the presentation. The art of the story-teller, author, script-writer and director, has rested on their ability to build a convincing fictional world and then to shape the development of events within that world to some compelling purpose. With some notable exceptions, in the majority of linear narratives, the author shapes events to build anticipation to a climax of dramatic tension and then resolves the tension, in ways which either reinforce or contradict the viewer's expectations. Similarly, in using interactive media to make a communication based on a fiction, an author faces the problems of creating (and maintaining) a convincing fictional world and in finding ways to shape the viewer's responses. However, in an interactive, the problem of shaping the viewer's experience becomes more complex, since the author's control of dramatic tension may be lost, by passing navigational control to the user.
b) The Structure
Cunningham's storyline is very simple. We enter a room as a spectator at night, have the opportunity to look around and examine objects in the room in detail and then leave. The program structure mirrors this simplicity. After a linear introduction to objects in the room, the viewer is given the opportunity to explore the objects. This freedom to explore, is terminated inadvertently by the user, who loses navigational control, when the interactive reverts back into linear mode for the final animated sequence.
c) Exploring the Space
On entering the interactive phase, filmic expectations are dashed as we are put into 'quest game mode' and set about the search for significant information about the nature of the room, the owners and the reason for our own presence in it. What we find are fleeting glimpses and fragmentary evidence of the occupants. The upbeat, frivolous tone of snatches of conversation and banal details of their coming and going, serve principally to reinforce the sense of absence, rather than establish their presence.
At some point we may wonder whether this is a rather mundane game with no pay off, or a pseudo-documentary photo-essay of two students, presented in a novel form. With hindsight the interactive phase of this work can be seen as a form of digression in the narrative, which lays a false trail about the actual subject of the work and the likely outcome of the quest, while giving the viewer the sensation of freedom to make decisions. The exploration of the room, lets us experience interaction with the fictional word and establishes a set of expectations, which are later confounded. The sting in the tail of the work, is the abrupt undercutting of the viewer's expectations, when the act of turning a door handle removes our freedom to act. We are pulled serenely but relentlessly past the restless sleeper, out of the room, out of the building, out of the street and out of the world. The filmic cues in the sound track tell us to relinquish control and sink back into cinematic mode, as we are transported from the mundane room to a symbolic death. At this point, the focus of our queries is likely to move from the student occupants, toward our own role as observer. Has the viewer died, is the viewer a ghostly visitor, a guardian angel perhaps, or are we simply part of the sleeper's dream ? Whatever the answer, the drama has
raised the question of our mortality with a 'lightness of touch' which allows us to enjoy the experience of that final exit up the golden ladder.
4] MAINTAINING CONTINUITY
By suspending our disbelief we can allow ourselves to treat the fictional world as though it were real and begin to interact with it. Inconsistencies and discontinuity's in the work, threaten to destroy imaginative engagement and absorption in the fiction. In film and video moments of transition in space and time are potential sources of discontinuity. A number of expressive devices, such as the cut, dissolve, zoom, pan, etc have been developed, which allow a range of ideas and sensations to be communicated by controlling the quality of the transition. These techniques are now a ubiquitous part of cinematic language. In addition to the potential sources of discontinuity that we are familiar with in a linear medium such as film, the author of an interactive has to deal with others unique to digital interactive media such as :-
a] Aliasing due to limitations in the processing power of the hardware.
b] Points of transition that occur when switching from non linear
interactive mode, into a linear sequence of animation or digital video.
a] Aliasing
Aliasing occurs, when the amount of visual information displayed, is insufficient to create the illusion of a continuous surface (spatial aliasing known as pixilation) and/or of continuous motion (temporal aliasing).
Since current standard desktop computers don't yet have the processing speed to run high resolution, full screen, animations at 30 frames per second, compromises have to be made in order to reduce the amount of information processed to a data rate that a computer can handle. The quantity of information can be reduced by :-
i) reducing the dimensions of the image
ii) lowering image resolution
iii) lowering the frame rate of a moving image
Cunningham has designed around the technical constraints of the medium, to ensure continuous smooth motion and the illusion of high resolution, in both still and moving images. Reducing image resolution of the red velvet curtains, which have little image detail, allows them to be animated at full screen dimensions. However, the dimensions of the opening and closing animations, are reduced to half screen, to maintain image resolution and smooth motion. Any sudden, arbitrary change in image size, resolution or frame rate has the potential to disrupt
continuity. Several techniques are used to lessen the impact of a sudden change in size, such as a dissolve to a black screen between changes in image size, or running video sequences on top of a still photograph of a TV. These kind of continuity problems will hopefully become less significant, as the processing capacity of computers continues to increase.
b] Transitions between modes of operation
Transitions between non linear and linear modes of operation occur as control of the flow of events is switched between the user and pre-programmed sequences. If control is lost briefly, there may be no sense of discontinuity, but when control is arbitrarily lost for an extended period, the user's involvement with the content can be disrupted.
Cunningham has recognised that the emotions generated in the user, when navigational control is taken away, can be employed to positively reinforce the content. Rather than disguising the transition from free exploration to linear animation, he has incorporated it into the content of the interactive at a pivotal point. After the door handle has been 'turned', the user experiences a sense of loss produced by the unexpected loss of navigation control. By associating this sense of loss with the viewer's growing awareness that he may just have died, the potentially disruptive moment of transition is transformed into an expressive devise, which serves to intensify the viewer's experience of the symbolic death.
Concluding remarks
Seen in the context of works in other more established media, this interactive project is the equivalent of an essay rather than a novel, an experimental short rather than a feature film. However, in this work Cunningham demonstrates the way in which the point of transition in an interactive, between non linear exploration and linear narrative modes, can be deployed as an expressive device to positively reinforce content. While the full significance of such transitions as communication tools, will only become apparent with further work, Cunningham's project has revealed a novel form of expressive device, which is unique to interactive digital media.
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John Fairclough
Senior Lecturer in Design (Computer Graphics)
Elam School of Fine Arts
The University of Auckland
New ZealandPh: 09 373 7599 or 8058
Fax: 09 308 2302email: j.fairclough@auckland.ac.nz
James Cunningham
Graduate Student
Elam School of Fine Arts
The University of Auckland
New ZealandBack to Home Page ...... by Presenter ...... by Paper Title ...... by Keyword
